Nicaraguan regime bans Christian activities during Holy Week, organizes fashion shows instead

Nicaragua's Marxist-Leninist regime has once again banned public Christian activities associated with Holy Week and Easter.

Instead of communal displays of Christian faith, Rosario Murillo, the power-mad wife of Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega, has ensured that only festivities favorable to the regime will be permitted to take over the streets.

The regime's decision to continue its brutal repression of Christians, most notably Catholics, comes amid new U.S. sanctions targeting Nicaraguan Attorney General Wendy Carolina Morales Urbina for her role in executing the "regime's unjust persecution of political prisoners and civil society within the country."

The U.S. State Department also announced new arms restrictions against Nicaragua on March 14, citing concerns "about continuing brutal repression by Ortega-Murillo authorities against the people of Nicaragua."

Background

The Catholic Church in Nicaragua had a fleeting flirtation with the Sandinistas in the 20th century. However, in the 1980s, Pope John Paul II cleaned house, suspending clergymen who supported revolutionary Marxism. The former Roman pontiff also promoted a steadfast critic of the Sandinistas, then-Archbishop Miguel Obano y Bravo, to cardinal in 1985.

The church's revived defiance of leftism in Managua and frequent alliance with Nicaraguan conservatives made it an easy target for persecution. The church became an even bigger target when it supported critics of the regime during the 2018 protests, which Ortega turned bloody.

Blaze News previously reported that at the outset of his fourth term in office in 2018, Ortega's paramilitaries sent a clear message, shooting up a church. Ortega suggested that Catholics critical of the regime or sympathetic to critics of the regime were "terrorists."

Now in his fifth term, the leftist dictator's attacks on Catholics have worsened. The regime routinely targets Catholics with arbitrary raids, beatings, disappearances, deportations, church burnings, and asset seizures. Additionally, Ortega's regime has shuttered thousands of church-affiliated organizations and services in recent years.

The Associated Press indicated that despite support for the regime among several evangelical leaders, the regime has also begun extending its persecution to other Christian groups, closing or dissolving more than 256 associations linked to the Protestant or evangelical church since 2021.

This persecution has prompted an estimated 80% of the country's clergy and religious to flee.

Frederick Davie, the vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said earlier this year, "USCIRF is outraged that the Nicaraguan government has chosen to continue its brutal crackdown on members of the Catholic Church for speaking out about the religious freedom and human rights violations occurring in the country."

"It has become increasingly clear that President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo are intent on silencing the voice of any individual peacefully following the dictates of their conscience," added Davie.

Holy week in the shadow of the regime

Last year, the regime banned public Holy Week events, processions, and outdoor masses. Murillo blasted those who dared complain, claiming they "do not know how to be respectful or show solidarity."

The Associated Press reported that extra to shutting down religious activities, authorities also picked up and deported clergymen.

The regime has doubled down this year.

Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer who authored the Spanish language report "Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?" noted on Facebook that the regime had banned "4,800 processions for Lent/Holy Week 2024[.] This figure includes the processions that took place/will take place on the 4 Fridays of Lent, Palm Sunday and those that took place directly in the Major Week itself."

Molina indicated that parishes have or will hold religious activities indoors, but that state officials may interfere with those as well, reported the Catholic News Agency.

"Some processions have been allowed around the block where the church is, but at the last minute a National Police officer shows up and gives a counter-order so the people can’t come out (of the church for the procession), under threat of being imprisoned," wrote Molina.

Molina told a Spanish-language news outfit, "Nicaragua is a country very given, as a Catholic people, to popular piety."

As a result, various townships and municipalities will attempt to hold Holy Week activities even if the Catholic Church is officially barred from doing so.

The Christian Post reported that Murillo, the dictator's wife, has indicated that this year, officials will swap out religious processions with "popular processions." These processions, organized by the regime's Institute of Tourism, will emphasize the Sandinistas' radical ideology throughout Holy Week.

Rather than prayerful reflection, the Ortega-Murillo regime has reportedly opted for fashion shows, beauty contests, and other materialistic distractions. While the regime insists that its approved message floods the streets, it also promotes anti-Christian hatred on television and the radio.

A new human rights report from the United Nations indicated that "led by the President and the Vice-President, hate speech inciting to violence and discrimination against the Catholic Church has been disseminated through pro-government media."

Republican Sens. Rick Scott (Fla.), Ted Cruz (Texas), Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), and Katie Britt (Ala.) implored President Joe Biden last week to sanction Nicaragua for its "repeated violations of religious freedom in Nicaragua."

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